Two years had flown by and we were taking our final trip in Europe, so it had to be somewhere great. Since Barbie and I had always wanted to go to the French Riviera, aka Cote d’Azur, it was the most obvious choice. We took the early morning flight out on Wednesday (May 5th) to Nice, France, and then took a bus to Monaco. Monaco is a small country on the French coastline, and when I say small, I am talking about 300 acres or so. It is the second smallest country next to the Vatican in Italy. Anyways, Monaco is basically known for two things…Monte Carlo and if you are into car racing, the Monaco Grand Prix. Unfortunately, we were about a week to early for the Grand Prix, but we got to see them setting everything up. Wednesday morning we took a quick nap, and then went to lunch at Cafe Paris next to the Casino in Monte Carlo where Barbie was able to get her beloved Tarte aux fraise, which is a strawberry pastry for all you non-French speakers. Afterwards, we basically just walked around here and there seeing half of the entire country of Monaco in one afternoon, and ended up having a drink on the beach before dinner. We had planned on going to the Casino that night, and we thought I would need a tux (which I had brought), but someone told us that would be overkill, so we had to go and buy me a jacket, shirt and tie instead at a local shop. The outfit ended up being pretty sweet, so needless to say I was happy with the unexpected purchase opportunity.

That evening we went back to Cafe Paris for dinner and then to the Casino. Unfornutely the Casino was basically empty, and only offered Baccarat, which I don’t know how to play, BlackJack and Roulette, both of which I do know. So we took our seat at the Roulette table, and after about 30 minutes we were up 5 euros, so we decided to cash out and head to another casino that had craps. This new casino was a little more lively, but only had 10 euro craps, so we didn’t last long there before we hit our limit for the night. Either way, it was a good time and worth it.

The next morning we went for another walk towards the other side of Monaco around the boat docks to check out all the multimillion dollar yachts that had driven in for the Grand Prix the next week. One of these days it would be nice to be able to afford one of these boats, but for now I am just happy on any boat. Perhaps we can settle for an in between solution in the future and charter one of the boats with about 8 other people and cruise up and down the French Riviera…any takers?
Thursday afternoon we took the train back to Nice and immediately went to our hotel and checked in. After getting checked in, we went for a nice walk along the beach, followed by dinner and getting lost. It took about an hour to find our way back to the hotel, when it should have taken only 15 minutes! The reason is because our hotel was on a street called Gounod, which apparantely changes names about 2 blocks from the beach. Therefore, when we walked by and saw a street called Meringerbeer, how were we supposed to know it was actually Gounod? This seems to happen in a lot of cities, especially San Francisco. My question is why would a city planner do something like this? There is no logic behind it other than to mess with the tourists. So, if any of you have any thoughts on the logic behind this, let me know.

Well, back to the Nice story. Saturday morning rolled around, and we headed off to Cannes. For those that live under a rock, this is where the famous film festival is held every year (again a week after we leave!). This year it was location for the Star Wars premiere…so that would have been cool to see. Well, other than that, Cannes seemed to offer more beach than Monaco and Nice, but it really didn’t seem to fit us. Perhaps that is because it was quite hot, and everything was about 3 times more expensive than it should be…and that says a lot when travelling with Barbie. We ended only spending the morning and afternoon in Cannes, and headed back to Nice for the evening. We decided on a somewhat early dinner since we were scuba diving the next morning, so not much to tell here.

Sunday morning we were up early and at the dive shop by 9am…yes, early takes on a different meaning when on vacation. We ended up doing one dive, and other than seeing an octupus and eel, it wasn’t the most exciting dive I have ever had. It was the first time I have had to wear a thick wetsuit and hood, but that is what happens when you have only dove in Miami, Hawaii and Barbados. After the dive, we decided to walk back along the beach to our hotel, and I must say it was a gorgeous day. I have never seen water that blue in my life! It was just one of those things that you have to be there to appreciate. Of course, it would help if I had a picture to show you, but I am about to tell why that is not possible. After lunch, we took a tour ride on the ‘Petite Train’ which drives around old Nice, and up to the top of a hill where you can get a good view of the city. At the top of the hill I took a great pic of Barbie, then we got back in the train, went down the hill (about 10 minutes total time), and got off and walked to our hotel. I don’t remember getting off the train with the camera, and neither does Barbie, so somewhere b/t taking a picture of Barbie on top of the hill, and getting off the train, our camera became lost. There was no where to put the camera down and leave it, so I don’t think I left it anywhere. I think someone stole it, but I am taking the blame for it being lost. The hard part is that it had all of our Berlin pictures and the pictures from this trip on it. The camera you can replace, but not the pics of our last two trips in Europe. Needless to say the rest of the afternoon and evening was kind of a downer, but that is life.

Monday was beech day! Actually Nice doesn’t have beeches with sand, but instead they are all covered in rocks, so you have a lot of private area with lounge chairs, umbrellas and of course some sort of bar and food. Another thing is that women are allowed to go topless. Barbie has become completely comfortable with this whole topless thing in the appropriate situation…so she was more than happy to get a tan with no tan lines. Well, there is not much more to say about beech day, other than we sat there and read and drank and ate while letting sun cause all sorts of wonderful cancer at the same time while darkening our skin. Barbie did make a good point about how times have changed though. Back in the day, someone with a tan meant you were a laborer b/c you had to be outside working all the time. Now, someone with a tan means you are wealthy enough to go outside and catch a tan while everyone else has to stay indoors and work.

Tuesday morning we headed back to good old Munich, thus ending our European travels for the time being. It’s been a great ride though and I am amazed when I look at all the magnets I have collected from the various cities around Europe, and to think this all happened within a two year timeframe. Hopefully we can continue to travel in the USA, but of course with the price of housing in the Bay Area, that may not be a reality for a while.

Hi all, sorry for the delay in posts, but we’ve doing a ton of travelling, mixed together with catching up on work and trying to get things ready for our move back to the States. Anyways, here is our Berlin trip.

We arrived in Berlin on Saturday, April 30th, in the morning. Now, just to let you know, this trip was planned by me, which meant I was on the hook for finding flights, hotels, things to do, basically everything that Barbie thrives on doing normally…and I might add, does very well! So to make sure everything was perfect, we stayed at the Swissotel. This place was top notch, the only downside being we couldn’t check in early. Therefore, we dropped our bags off and headed out to lunch. The first thing we noticed about Berlin was that people just dressed differently, and the average age seemed to be about late teens or early twenties. When you think of a person from Germany who dresses kinda funky (excluding ledhosen), this is what we were seeing. After lunch, and still not being able to check in, we headed to the Berlin Zoo. I don’t remember, and neither did Barbie, the last time that either one of us had been to a Zoo. We saw all sorts of animals (elephants, bears, tigers, panthers, bobcats, chimps, gorillas, snakes, fish, etc.), but the coolest had to be the White Wolves and the Polar Bears. The wolves just looked like bigger versions of Kymba, and the Polar Bears are just sweet. They look innocent and fun, but are basically one of the meanest animals out there.

After the zoo, we headed back to the hotel and finally got checked in. Of course, it was then time for the standard afternoon nap…which is a must on vacations. After that, we headed to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, which is a museum dedicated to all those people who tried to escape East Berlin, or Communist controlled countries for that matter. The museum is located next to one of the famous checkpoints that separated the American side and East Berlin. A lot of history is in this museum, and it was actually opened while the wall was still up, and used as a headquarters for planning escapes. As you can tell, we had had a long day, and it was time for some dinner. We headed down the street to Bocca di Bacco, which is an Italian restaurant. Well, I ended up getting a Thuna Steak, and Barbie got a Filet, but thanks to the fact that Barbie wasn’t that hungry, I ended up getting both for a great Surf and Turf meal! Ah…the joys of having a wife, although my weight scale and triathlon training are not to appreciative.

Sunday we awoke to another beautiful sunny day, and decided to do the City-Circle Bus Tour, which is basically one of those sightseeing tours on a bus where you can get on and off all day. The tour was cool with lots of info., and we got off here and there, but the best and most interesting stop was definitely the Brandenburger Tor (aka. The Brandenburg Gate). The gate itself is impressive, and represents the split in Berlin as the westerners could see it, but couldn’t get to it b/c it was on the East Side. What made this place extra cool was an exhibit that showed pictures with great descriptions from the WW II. First it showed pictures of 4 cities that the Germans had absolutely leveled during the war, then it proceeded to show how Hitler came to power, and then it showed what Berlin looked like after the Allies had bombed it. I think it was something like only 15% of the buildings remained standing after the bombing. Anyways, the exhibit finished by showing the original 4 cities that had been bombed, and what they look like today, and how they have rebuilt. The exhibit was outside, so everyone could see it, but it was nice to see that it wasn’t trying to just show you how badly Berlin was damaged, but instead showed you why Berlin had to be destroyed, ie. by showing the 4 other cities completely demolished.

After seeing all the sights, including a small portion of what still exists from the original Berlin Wall, we headed to Potsdamer Platz to catch a movie. I know most of you would say why see a movie while vacationing, but let’s be honest, you get tired and don’t want to see anything anymore, and a movie is a great way to relax without feeling cooped up in a hotel room. We ended up seeing ““, which happened to fairly good. Finally, after all of this we had dinner and headed back to the hotel to call it a night, and Monday morning we flew back to Munich. All in all a cool city to see with tons of history, but I still prefer to live Munich.

So, just a couple of days after arriving back from Miami, Barbie and I headed to Luxor in Egypt (April 15th). Barbie was there to give a presentation for work, and I was there to site see. Well, if there was a direct flight from Munich to Luxor, the total travel time would be about 4 hours. Unfortunately, we had to go through Frankfurt, then Cairo, then finally Luxor. And to top things off, we had a 4 hour layover in Cairo, that was extended an additional 4 hours for a total of 8 for some unknown reason. The Egypt Air employee just came out and said our plane was delayed, then left with no explanation. Anyways, to make a long story short, we got up at about 4:30am to catch a 7am flight to Frankfurt, and didn’t arrive into Luxor until Midnight!

Luckily for us, that was the worst of the trip. For those that know Vegas, you know that the Luxor Hotel is in the shape of a pyramid. Funny thing about that is that there are no pyramids in Luxor. All the pyramids are up in Giza, which is a town outside of Cairo. Back in the day, the Egyptians were tired of having looters raid the pyramids for treasure, so they decided to have tombs hidden in the mountains in Luxor. Unfortunately all the tombs except one were still found and looted, but at least they figured out that they shouldn’t build pyramids which basically say “Hey thieves and looters, all of our treasure is hidden here!”

So, Saturday morning we all went to the “Valley of the Kings”, which is where all the king’s tombs are. As I mentioned before, only one tomb was not looted, and this was the infamous King Tut’s tomb. King Tut died unexpectedly at an early age, probably early 20’s, so his tomb wasn’t finished being built. Therefore, they had to quickly (within 40 days) build another smaller one and ended up just shoving all his treasure in there. Since the tomb was so small, another king later on accidentally ended up building his tomb on top of King Tut’s, and thus why King Tut’s tomb took until the 1920’s to be found. Anyways, his body was still there in the large casket looking thing (I forget the name of it), but the original head piece is actually in a museum in Cairo.
After King Tut’s tomb, we went into the Tomb of Ramses IV. This was an extremely larger tomb than King Tut’s, and the walls we completely decorated with all sorts of heiroglyphics. Amazingly enough, the heiroglyphics all still had their color…red, blue, green, etc., and it didn’t even look that faded. Scientists are still in the process of trying to figure out what chemicals the Egyptians used to have the paint last for 7000+ years!
After the Valley of the Kings, we drove to an old temple on the other side of the mountain, which actually had a tunnel that went through the mountain so they could transport the King’s bodies through the tunnel to the tombs on the other side. Not quite as cool as the tombs, but still interesting.

We ended up getting back to the hotel around 1pm, and they began their meetings. I was actually required to attend the meetings in the beginning, b/c they had bought a birthday cake for Barbie, and they wanted me there. I must say the cake was gooooood! After the short intro, I ended up going back up to the room and relaxing since I was fighting a cold. That evening they had all of us go to a small island on the Nile for a dinner with some festivities…including belly dancers, a band, some other dancers, and this guy who spins/twirls. However, the highlight of the night was in the beginning. We were sitting at our table, and someone decided to bet on when this guy named Mark would first get on the floor and dance. So everyone threw in some money and put their times on the paper. Barbie, being the last person, saw that the current time was about 8:45pm, and the earliest guess was 9:15pm. So, being the “Price is Right” fan that she is, she put 9:14pm. At about 9pm, this guy Mark comes to our table to see how everyone is doing, and Barbie nonchalantly asks “So Mark, when are you going to dance?” Mark, not being the bashful type, says “Why don’t we go now!” Of course Barbie stood right up, went to the dance floor for a little while, then came back and promptly collected her winnings. Needless to say our entire table was shocked and stunned, especially b/c this was the ethics lady of the company! I must say I was proud.

The next day we went to the Karnak temple, which is the largest temple in Luxor, and is also about 7500 years old. The heiroglyphics on the pillars and obelisks were again quite impressive, and in some cases you could still the color that they were. The thing that is most amazing is that when you are walking around, you have to imagine seeing all of this built up, and being someone that had to come and meet the Pharoah. You must have just been awe struck by the size of this place. Remember, this all before the Romans and of course Christ. That night we actually headed back to the Karnak temple for a “light” show, where they explain some things and light up the pillars in Obelisks, not with lasers, but with flood lights. Overall it was just cool to see.

Monday morning we headed back to Munich for some much needed rest, as Barbie had caught my cold, and I wasn’t 100% healthy yet. Luckily for us we didn’t have any plane delays this time. We actually tried to stay in Cairo for a night so I could see the museum and Pyramids, but the plane schedule didn’t work out. Egypt is definitely very interesting to see, but not sure I would want to live there, as you have to go through metal detectors and bomb searches everywhere you go, plus it gets to be about 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Remember though, it’s not the heat that kills you, it’s the humidity…and Egypt is quite dry.

Pictures from Luxor

Apparantely I have been doing something wrong as of late, b/c I seem to keep upsetting the Germans.

Case #1: The Shower Incidents
For those that have been to our place, you know that we have a great pool, sauna and shower indoors for the entire complex to use, and you also know that the show is a thousand times better than ours. For those that didn’t know…now you know. Well, there is the clock that you are supposed to put on the door when entering this area, and it tells the time you are going to be finished using the facilities. So, the other morning, I got down there, and set the clock to 9:30 (little hand on the 9, big hand on the 6). As I’m showering, I hear a voice outside the door! What the heck, I had only been in there for 5-10 minutes, what was going on. I quickly grabbed my towel before the lady opened the door. She proceed to tell me (in German), that my time was up, as the clock outside said I was to be done at 8:30 and not 9:30. Needless to say I was still shocked that she was there, plus I was only in a towel. I told her I would be done shortly, and she said “Guten Bad” (have a good bath), and proceeded to wait outside the door until I was done. As I left, I checked the clock, and the little hand was definitely on the 9, and the big hand on the 6. Apparantely she wanted precise measure like a real clock, therefore the little hand slightly past the 9.

The second shower incident came a couple mornings later. Again, I set the clock (exact this time), and proceeded to the shower room. The only difference was I did not turn on the light in the pool area b/c I wasn’t using it, so might as well save electricity. Well, I finish my shower and proceed to leave, and another lady is just coming in through the door. She goes on to tell me she thought the area wasn’t being used b/c the light in the pool area wasn’t on. What the heck, the clock was on the door outside and was unlocked…meaning someone set the clock and unlocked the door. Apparantely I must have missed the home owners meeting when all of the rules were covered. The funny part is, both ladies thought it was my fault, and felt they were completely justified to come in and take a peek…which is only allowed by Barbie.

Case #2: The Buses
Here’s how it works in Germany…a Bus puts their right blinker on when they are stopping to pick someone up, and their left blinker when they are done and are going to continue going straight. Well, when the right blinker is on, you are allowed to pass, when the left blinker is on, the Bus has the right of way. When I say right of way, I mean RIGHT OF WAY! Two times within the past couple of weeks, I have started to pass a bus (bus’ right blinker was on), and as soon as I am about a quarter of the way through passing, the bus flicks his left blinker on and guns it to try and cut me off. There is absolutely no let’s wait and let the cars that are already passing go by before the Bus starts. The first time it happened I had to slam on my brakes before going directly into the side of the bus. The second time there wasn’t anyone in the oncoming lane, so I veered over there to continue the pass. Of course the bus driver was pissed about this, probably thinking to himself “I am King of Road, No one pass me!” (broken English). Therefore, he actually gunned it even more, coming all the way into the oncoming lane to try and cut me off! Luckily I made it, and he proceeded to start flashing me with his brights. Somehow I think these guys feel that if they get passed it will cause them to show up at their next bus stop at 8:53 instead of 8:52, and we all know how much the Germans like to be punctual.

So, in case you are a big music fan, and are curious who is #1 Rock Band in Europe…well…it is the “Die Toten Hosen,” which translates as “The Dead Pants.” They seem to be the Metallica of the U.S., and actually have their own show on MTV where they follow them around on their concert tour. Unfortunately it is all in German, so I only catch bits and pieces of what they are saying. Either way, consider yourself informed, and who knows, maybe they’ll be popular in the States one day as some of their songs are in English.

We finally went skiing in the Alps, and it only took us 2 years to do it! It was both Kristen and mine’s first time, so there was bound to be plenty of sore muscles and butts afterwards. We arrived on Thursday night, with plans to ski on both Friday and Saturday. Thanks to the advice from a friend, we ended up going to Hochfuegen for our skiing adventure, and of course thanks to Barbie for finding a great hotel right at the bottom of slopes 9 and 9a (see link above). We could literally ski down to the lifts from target=”_blank”>right outside our hotel!

Anways, Friday morning came bright and early, and we all bundled up for what we expected to be a somewhat cold day of skiing. However, the sun was out and by lunch we were skiing (or at least trying to) in our t-shirts. Well, I was in a T-Shirt, and Kristen wore overalls. As you can tell from the picture, Kristen had a rougher time than I did learning the whole skiing thing, but after our lessons, she was “snow plowing” her way down the mountain with no problems. For me, it took a little less time, and once I figured out to turn and stop, I was looking for the higher lifts. My strategy was simple…make sharp turns that my speed stayed slow…thus preventing any major accidents. After a while I was flying down the mountain…not really, but the picture is cool so I had to work it into the story somehow.

After our long day of skiing we headed back to the hotel and got some dinner with the plans to ski Saturday until about 1pm, and head out early to beat the traffic. Unfortunately, mother nature had other plans and she opened up the skies, and since it was nice and warm, instead of sow we got cold rain. Needless to say we decided to cancel our ski day and headed back to Munich. Apparantely everyone was thinking th e same thing though, since a ride that is supposed to only take 2 hours, actually ended up taking 4 hours! Despite the traffic, our ski weekend was a GREAT SUCCESS! We had the time of our lives, and I am only disappointed that I didn’t get a picture of Barbie skiing…maybe next time I’ll be good enough to ski and carry the camera at the same time!

Skiing in Alps pictures

Once again, a weekend can’t go by without us going somewhere with Kristen. This time we headed to Venice, Italy for the weekend. Barbie had already been there twice, and I had been once, but it was one of the places that Kristen had always wanted to go, so being the gracious Uncle Donnie and Auntie Barbie that we are, she got her wish.

we arrived on Friday (Mar. 11th), and after much searching finally found our hotel. In case you don’t know, you have to park at a Parking Garage outside the city, then take a water taxi or bus to the island(s). If you are wealthy enough to afford a taxi, they can take you right next to your hotel, otherwise, when you take the water bus, it drops you off somewhere (Rialto bridge for us), then you get to find your hotel through all the small alleyways lined by canals . Anyways, we get to our hotel and the guy proceeds to show us our room. Unfortunately there is only one king size bed, and since there are 3 of us, Barbie and I of course start giving strange looks to each other. When we ask about the 2nd bed, he says you can go upstairs and use that room. At first we thought this meant an entirely new room, but instead it was all one massive suite with a separate living room and two twin beds in another room upstairs. Needless to say we were thoroughly thrilled. Come to find out, the lady who runs the place was so impressed that we, actually Barbie, called to say we were going to be checking in later than expected that she upgraded us before she changed shifts!

Saturday morning we headed to San Marco Square to see the Church, and then Kristen and I went to the top of the Bell Tower, which had a cool view of all of Venice. While we were up in the tower, Barbie was kind enough to buy us some corn kernels so we could feed the pigeons. Although some of you may consider this nasty, it ended up being one of the more enjoyable things we did while we were there. Barbie, being one of those who consider it disgusting, stayed away taking pictures of the birds literally flocking all over us for the food. The pigeons had absolutely no fear, and Kristen absolutely loved it. Afterwards, we took a taxi gondola across the Grand Canal and saw the Church of the Santa Maria della Salute, which was apparently built as a thanks to God for letting them live through a plague back in 1630. Afterwards, we had Lunch on the Grand Canal(actually we washed our hands first…darn pigeons), then
went to see the Accadamia museum. After such a busy morning and early afternoon we went back to the hotel for a power nap, then went to some fancy Italian place for dinner. Food was good, but portions were small for the price.

Sunday we headed to Scuola di San Rocco, which is where back in the 1500’s two brothers held a competition of painters to paint there church. Tintoretto won the competition and spent the next 23 years painting in this building. The artwork is amazing, and the audio guide was very informative, but really too informative since you couldn’t jump from painting to painting, but instead had to listen to everything all at once…with no fast forward! After about an hour and a half of viewing these awesome paintings, we went to lunch, followed by Kristen and I trying to feed the pigeons again in San Marco. Unfortunately, they weren’t as brave this time, probably b/c of all the people that were now in the square. So, we headed back to the hotel for yet another power nap, followed by some shopping and just walking all around Venice taking in the atmosphere and sites. That evening we just had a simple dinner, and went back to the hotel to watch a movie since Barbie had to get up early to catch a 7:30am flight.

Monday morning arrived bright and early, and Barbie was gone, but she had taken the parking garage ticket, but luckily realized it so she had time to fax it to me at the hotel before we left. Unfortunately the parking garage people wanted the original, or some sort of proof that the car was mine. However, since we had to leave the car key at the garage the whole time, we took, actually Barbie took, the glove compartment key with us so we could lock up some things while we were away. Too bad the documents for the car were in there also! So I spent the next hour with them trying to get them to let me have the car, and it finally came down to Cisco having to fax me a letter of approval to take the car since it was a company car. Long story short…it took us about an extra hour to get out of there.

All in all, despite the fact we had already been to Venice, it was a great time. We got to see some new things on the trip, and Venice is just one of those cities that is cool to see and be in for a little while. We also got a sweet looking flower Vase made from Murano glass, along with some matching juice glasses to boot! So, we now have something (other than a magnet, which is what I usually collect) to remember Venice.

More Pictures from Venice

I’m not sure how many of you have ever done this or not, but this past Sunday I went off the HIGH DIVE, which is the highest diving platform and is 10 meters high, or about 33 feet. In my 2 years here, I have never seen them let people go off this platform, but the last two times I have gone swimming, it has been open for the kids to jump off (yes, I am still a kid).

Anyways, Kristen first went off the 7.5 meter platform, which is the 2nd highest one. She was definitely nervous and took a good 10-20 seconds before jumping after moving up to the edge. After the 7.5 meter jump, we went up to the 10 meter platform. In order to show Kristen it wasn’t that bad, I decided to just take charge and push my way to front and jump off without really thinking about it. Sure enough, the kids moved and I was in front about to go, then I looked over the edge. All I could say was ‘Geeeeeeeeez!!’ Of course, after getting to the front, and having Kristen watching, I had no choice but to take the plunge. The free fall, as I would find out later, takes about 1.7 seconds, which is a long time to be falling. After hitting the water I just basically started tumbling until I came to a stop, and had to figure out which way was up again.

Sure enough I had done it, and went back up to get Kristen to go, but she was having none of it and ended up making her way back down the stairs. However, since I was already there, what the heck, let’s go for Round 2. Unfortunately this time I tensed up a split second before hitting the water, so it kinda hurt. Either way, it was a rush. The only other time I remember jumping off something near as high (although I don’t think it was 10m), was in Barbados off a cliff.

Well, another week gone by, and another country visited with Kristen. Last week we were in London, England…as opposed to the equally popular London, Kentucky, or London, Ohio, or London, Texas, or London, Arkansas or London, West Virginia. Kinda makes you wonder what the city planners were thinking when naming their city…”Geez…let’s name our city London, that way no matter how big or popular we get, we will always be in the shadow of that other city in the UK…or heck, maybe we’ll get a few stupid tourists stopping by.”

Anyways, sorry for the tangeant, we had a great time in London. Unfortunately, Barbie and I didn’t get to do all the tourist stuff with Kristen b/c we had to work during the week, but she was able to go along with Joan…so at least she was with family. Barbie actually got to spend Monday site seeing instead of working, I guess that is reasonable since I spent a good 2 months in London not working and touring the sites. Well, I know you are curious what we saw, so here goes.

With me: Cabinet War Rooms & Churchill Museum, Imperial War Museum, saw Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abbey from the outside.

Without me but with Barbie: Don’t remember

Just Joan and Kristen: Natural History Museum, London Eye, Westminster Abbey, McDonalds

Well, we also got to see a few shows while we were in town. We saw “The Producers”, which was excellent, and “Chicago,” which left much to be desired. “The Producers” was funny, had different sets, and just some good all around lines. What made it even more funny, was that they would speak and sometimes sing in Deutsch, but it seemed only Barbie, Kristen and I understood. The reason for this is b/c it is about a couple of broadway producers, who decide to make a show that will bomb, and thus be able to keep all the money the raised to produce the show. Therefore, they pick “Springtime for Hitler” as their theme. Well, I won’t tell you what happens after that, but it is hilarious, especially if you’ve spent any good amount of time with some Germans.

“Chicago” on the other hand had no costume changes, no set changes, and seemed more like a dance show at times than a musical. So…stick with the movie, and you will be left with a good taste in your mouth about the show. Since I stayed an extra night in London, I actually got to see an extra play by The Reduced Shakespeare Company, which does all of Shakespeare’s play in a slap stick way, and condensed to fit within an hour and a half. It was a fun show and kept me entertained, so I’d have to give it the DG thumbs up.

So, all in all, we had a good, if not great time. I especially enjoyed the War museums b/c I had just finished reading a book on FDR and Churchill and their relationship during the War, so everything was fresh in my mind. I’m sure I would have enjoyed them without the book, but it made it an extra little special , for me anyways. So…go to London, and try not to think about the exchange rate of the dollar to pound, and you will have a good time.

Sorry for the late update, but last week we headed to Paris where we met the one and only Mimi! Ok, for those of you who don’t know who that is, it is Kristen’s grandmother and Barbie’s mom, and Mimi is the French word for grandmother, and what is Kristen and Trevor always call her (Her real name is Jeanne). Well, we expected the worse weather wise, but ended up getting some of the best weather you could really ask for in the winter. About 10-12 degrees Celsius (you do the conversion), and bright sunny skies. Barbie, Kristen and I arrived Saturday evening and picked up Mimi on Sunday morning.

Of course since Barbie was planning the trip, we had one of the perfect locations for a hotel (my choice was good last time also) that was about 100 yards from Cafe Flore and Cafe Le Deux Magot, both of which are considered the top cafes in all of Paris. So, every morning we would head there for a croissant or strawberry tart and a hot chocolate or coffee…depending on your preference. Afterwards we would head out and see the numerous sites.

This time we actually decided to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and I must say it made you catch your breath as the main elevator to the top made its rise. I mean, you have to think this thing is around 100+ years old, so who knows what they were thinking back then when it came to safety. Anyways, the view made it worth it, and Paris is just a beautiful city. We also went back to the Louvre, Napolean’s tomb, Champs Elysees street, Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame cathedral, Basilique due Sacre-Coeur, and for the first time visited their Pantheon.

After Paris we headed to Versailles for the day, followed to heading to Normandy. Normandy is one of those places that just makes you stop and think, and also thank God that we were able to win the war. The American cemetary made you fully appreciate all those who died in Normandy, most of which came from D-Day itself. Overall the American cemetary had just under 10,000 marble white crosses.

Overall the trip was a blast. Although we had been to Paris, this trip was still very much enjoyable, not only b/c Paris is just a great city, but b/c it is cool to see it through the eyes of those who have never been there. It makes you appreciate it all over again.

p.s. For those who care, I was able to watch the Superbowl live on Sunday night at an Irish Bar, and I must say that there were a decent amount of people there despite the fact the game started at 12:30am.

So, be sure to check out our wonderful Pictures from France that Barbie has uploaded…enjoy.